April Fools Day pranks (2016 edition)

A selection of spoofs and tricks from April Fools' Day...

As usual, with yesterday being April Fools' Day, the internet was full of fake stories. Here are just a few of them...

1) Japanese keyboards

Kids born in English speaking countries are lucky that we only have 26 letters to learn.  However, in Japan there are about 50,000 kanji characters, and between 2,000 to 3,000 of these are in common use! So as you can imagine learning to type in Japanese must be quite a task, as you can see by this Japanese keyboard...

10 cool internet Easter eggs (part 6)

Bruce Wayne's alter ego, junk food, and Antipodean chauffeured penguins

It's that time of year once again when I take a look at a selection of Easter eggs and hidden features found on various websites around the internet...

1) Hidden Dinosaur Game in Google Chrome

Google have included a hidden Dinosaur game in Google Chrome.

Google have definitely got a sense of fun because they've created a lot of hidden internet Easter eggs over the years.  It should come as little surprise then to learn that they've also included a hidden Easter egg in Google Chrome.

If you attempt to access a webpage while offline you'll receive the message, "Google Chrome can't display the webpage because your computer isn't connected to the internet," and this message will be accompanied by a stick figure dinosaur.  If you then press 'space' a game will commence where you control the dinosaur and have to jump over cacti and other obstacles to aim for the hightest score possible.

If you use Google Chrome then give it a try, but read the rest of this blog post first, as you need to be offline for the game to work!

Smiley faces in things

"A smile is the prettiest thing you can wear."

I don't know who said that, but whoever it was, it's a cool quote.

"Pareidolia sounds like some weird medical condition, but in actual fact pareidolia is simply the phenomenon of seeing faces (or other items) in everyday objects and patterns."

I know who said that. It was me!

Anyway, tomorrow is International Day Of Happiness, so I thought it would be appropriate to combine smiles and pareidolia, and feature a selection of happy smiley faces found in everyday objects.

1) Smiley face beer!

First up is a smiley face which randomly appeared in the froth on a pint of lager. Appropriately enough, the smiley face actually even looks a little bit tipsy, or perhaps that's just pareidolia playing tricks with my brain.

Smiley face beer.

Murray Walker quotes (part 2)

'If' is F1 spelt backwards...

Next weekend sees the start of a new formula 1 season, so as a tribute to a formula 1 commentating legend, here's another round-up of classic 'Murrayisms' from the former voice of formula 1 and one of my all-time favourite sports commentators, Murray Walker.

1) "This is an interesting circuit because it has inclines, and not just up but down as well!"
...Unless describing the Penrose stairs, you would generally expect this to be the case.


2) "I make no apologies for their absence. I'm sorry they're not here."


3) "Andrea de Cesaris, the man who has won more Grand Prix than anyone else without actually winning one of them."

An Idiot Abroad quotes

"Wow!  Look at that old ice!"

From time to time on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I feature book reviews, and one book which I thoroughly enjoyed was An Idiot Abroad 2 by Karl Pilkington.

The sense of humour will probably appeal to some people more than others, so rather than review the book, I thought I would sum it up with a selection of quotes which illustrate the logic and wisdom of Karl Pilkington…

Street entertainers...

1) "I’ve always found it odd how tourists take photographs of mime artists. Everyone looks like a mime in a photo."



Glaciers…

2) “He was telling me that some of these glaciers are millions of years old, but I can’t get excited about old ice. Ice is ice. You never see someone on Antiques Roadshow turning up with a block of ice for a reason.”


3) “I can’t imagine if the question on Family Fortunes was ‘What would you like to do before you die?’ that ‘Touch some old ice’ would be a top answer.”

Nature vs technology: A 'higher or lower' quiz

This week technology takes on nature in a series of head-to-head battles, as I pit nature against technology in a 'higher or lower' comparison. Round one is a battle of temperatures.

In the red corner...  The sun's core.
And in the blue corner...  The Large Hadron Collider.

Round 1) Temperature

The Large Hadron Collider, pictured yesterday,

One of the earliest scentific facts I remember being aware of is that the Sun is extremely hot indeed. I remember in a child-like way thinking, 'You definitely wouldn't want to touch it!'

However, another scientific fact I learnt a bit later on is that sub-atomic shenanigans can also produce extremely high temperatures. Scientists are always firing atoms and stuff at each other inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), so how does the Sun's temperature compare with some of the experiments at the LHC?

Which is the hottest? The Sun's core, or the hottest temperature recorded at the LHC?

a) The Sun's core
b) Hottest temperature recorded at the Large Hadron Collider

Random thoughts

The planet Saturn ... still officially a planet.
Photo copyright of NASA. Used by kind permission.
#NotReally

This week the Charles Fudgemuffin blog features a random selection of thoughts and questions which don't really fit a standard theme. To give you a taste of what to expect, you may find random thoughts on time travel, farts, and badly named TV shows.

1) Planetary destruction

Twenty years ago, if someone had told you that in the year 2016 there would only be 8 planets, you would have assumed one of the planets was going to dramatically explode or disintegrate.

2) Weird security measures

Why do I have to prove who I am when I want to pay my bills over the phone? Do strangers ring up to pay my bills? And if so, why don't they let them?